New Wynn Everett Looks Like Old Wynn Vegas

An artist’s rendition of the redesigned Wynn Everett. Or it the one in Vegas? We can’t really tell. (Image: whdh.com)

The Wynn Everett’s redesign is complete. It was meant to be a bold and original architectural vision that would put east Massachusetts on the map; however, an artist’s rendition this week revealed a suspicious similarity to the Wynn Las Vegas.

And, indeed to the Encore Las Vegas.

Whether James McHugh, head of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, noticed this or not, he wasn’t letting on, and declared it to be a “vast improvement” on the original design. “[We’re] grateful our request to rethink the design was taken so seriously,” he added

“Unique to Massachusetts”

McHugh had lead the chorus of disapproval surrounding the original proposal and made a redesign one of the conditions of awarding Wynn Resorts the hotly-contested gaming license.

The original, he complained, lacked imagination: “It’s a generic design and does not reflect something unique to Massachusetts,” McHugh complained at the time. “It does not capture the energy that this company is capable of.”

Whether the new proposal is indeed “unique to Massachusetts” or merely a mash-up of previous Wynn Resorts, it is still an improvement on the previous concept, which looked like something Blake Carrington might have hallucinated during a Dynasty dream sequence.

And it has certainly struck a chord with the world’s biggest fan of Wynn-style architecture, Steve Wynn.

“The era of the grand hotel, the big, wonderful places that one would stop to visit, has been over. But now, in this great part of Massachusetts, we are bringing it back in spectacular fashion,” proclaimed Wynn, deliriously. “People will come here to have fun and experience grandeur; to eat, shop, vacation and live large and hopefully forget about the rigors of life for a while.”

100 More Rooms

Not only is the new tower arguably prettier, it’s also an upgrade.

The new structure will house over 600 hotel rooms, 100 more than originally proposed, and thus, it’s hoped, will yield more tax revenues and create more jobs.

The exterior of the 24-storey tower will now be proprietary “Wynn bronze” curved glass, which will afford “sweeping views of the Boston skyline,” Wynn Resorts said.

Wynn’s five-star $1.6 billion resort, if it goes ahead, is set to be the biggest private development in the history of Massachusetts, with a grand opening scheduled for some time in 2017.

And that’s still an “if.” The nearby municipalities of Revere, Somerville and Boston have all filed lawsuits against the state gambling commission in an attempt to block the project.

Joining them is Mohegan Sun, which came second in the license race, and a labor Union Representing the Suffolk Downs Racecourse.

The plaintiffs argue that the commission deliberately broke the law when it awarded the license to Wynn Resorts, and ignored alleged criminal activity by the former landowners of the Everett site.

The plot, a polluted former Monsanto chemical plant, will also need an extensive cleanup before construction can commence.